Technical Field
The present invention relates to flash memory, and in particular to methods for scheduling data-programming tasks and apparatuses using the same.
Description of the Related Art
Flash memory devices typically include NOR flash devices and NAND flash devices. NOR flash devices are random access—a host accessing a NOR flash device can provide the device any address on its address pins and immediately retrieve data stored in that address on the device's data pins. NAND flash devices, on the other hand, are not random access but serial access. It is not possible for NOR to access any random address in the way described above. Instead, the host has to write into the device a sequence of bytes which identifies both the type of command requested (e.g. read, write, erase, etc.) and the address to be used for that command. The address identifies a page (the smallest chunk of flash memory that can be written in a single operation) or a block (the smallest chunk of flash memory that can be erased in a single operation), and not a single byte or word. In reality, the NAND flash device always reads complete pages from the memory cells and writes complete pages to the memory cells. However, a processing unit typically uses a lot of time just waiting for the execution outcomes performed by the other components during data programming. Accordingly, what is needed are methods for scheduling data-programming tasks and apparatuses using the same, thereby enabling the processing unit to reduce the wait time.